During his period at the helm of the BFC, Tillman has been instrumental in bringing London Fashion Week back to centre stage, and leaves a thriving event that is once again holding its own, creatively speaking, alongside its foreign sisters. Massenet's challenge will now be to make London Fashion Week thrive financially too - something she has had ample experience of in her professional life.

Los Angeles-born Massenet, started her career as a fashion editor first at Women's Wear Daily, then at Tatler, a position she left in 1998 to start online shopping Mecca Net-a-porter.com with her investment banker husband (now ex) Arnaud Massenet.

In 2012 Massenet sold a £50 million stake in Net-a-Porter to Swiss luxury group Richemont who valued the business (which has expanded to include TheOutnet.com and MrPorter.com), at £350 million. Massenet has remained on board as executive chairman.

The BFC have yet to officially confirm the appointment, releasing the following statement today:

"Despite rumours, the British Fashion Council has confirmed that any new chairman is subject to BFC executive board approval. The BFC executive board is not due to meet until this evening and any announcement cannot be expected until then."